


Ouroboros

by OffCenter



Series: Complications [11]
Category: Moonlight (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-12
Updated: 2008-06-12
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:39:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OffCenter/pseuds/OffCenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josef goes missing; Mick finds him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ouroboros

_Tuesday_  
  
On his way out the door, Josef stops and frowns suddenly before going back to his desk and opening his laptop. He writes a short note, nods approvingly, and sends it.  
  
He hasn't gotten where he is by ignoring sudden inclinations to take extra precautions, after all. Then he straightens his tie and leaves for his meeting.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
 _Monday_  
  
Beth is curled up with her laptop on the sofa, finishing her report on the Jenkins mess when her email pings. A note from Josef surprises her and his subject line makes her laugh – he must have watched at least one of the Buffy DVDs she got him for Christmas despite his threat to burn them – but as she reads the short message her breath catches in her throat.  
  


> 5:22 PM 1/5/2010 Hey, Cutie
> 
> _Blood is red._  
>  Orchids are lewd.  
> If you're reading this  
> I'm really screwed.
> 
> 12718 Hacienda, Van Nuys, Ms. Lucinda Michaels, VP, Rache Biotec, 7 pm meeting
> 
> Josef

  
  
LAST Tuesday? She bolts upstairs to the freezer, yelling for Mick.  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
The phone rings at 11:07 pm, startling her out of a restless and unintentional nap.  
  
"I've got him and I'm on my way home." Beth sags in relief. "But he's in bad shape, drained, covered in dried blood, and unresponsive. Did you reach Guillermo? How much blood we got?"   
  
"He was here a while ago, dropped off 20 pints. There were already 5 here. He'll be able to restock within a couple more hours and said to call if we need him to bring more. He thinks it's for you."  
  
"Good, I don't want anybody to know Josef's with us until we know what happened. That should be enough. Could you strip the bed? There's a box under it with stuff that'll be easier to clean. This is bad. You sure you want to be there?"  
  
Beth swallows and nods before she can answer, but she keeps her voice steady. "Get the blood together, strip the bed, remake it. I'll be ready when you get here. How long?"  
  
"30 minutes unless I hit traffic, I'll call when I park; I need to call the Cleaner now. She's going to _love_ me when she writes up this bill."  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
She's got the door open and waiting when he runs faster than she can track from the stairwell to the door, not pausing even as she locks it behind him. The bundle in his arms is completely covered in a blanket. All she can see is that Josef's not the only one covered in blood.  
  
Mick is up the stairs before she can form any questions, so she grabs the bucket of hot water she'd already filled, bandage shears, and a stack of soft rags before taking a deep breath to brace herself and hurrying up the stairs.  
  
Mick's already stripped off his own gory clothes and laid Josef's body – no, damn it, _Josef_ – on the bed. Now that she can see what he'd so carefully covered up, she starts to shake and feels faint and nauseated. Josef's clothes are tattered with what looks like acid burns. His skin is darkened and burnt-looking in places as well. Bones are visible at his wrists and ankles. One section of scalp is hanging loose. His eyes are open and staring, bright silver, his mouth open in a snarl, lips pulled back from razor sharp fangs, but his face, his body... he looks more like a mummy in a museum than anything alive.   
  
_'Pull yourself together, Beth Turner. You can't help him like this!'_ she scolds herself, and after she steadies herself she hands Mick the shears and dampens the first cloth. She starts carefully washing the dried blood off Josef's exposed skin as Mick cuts the remains of Josef's clothes off.  
  
Together they get him stripped and relatively clean. She sits next to him while Mick brings up the blood, leaning over and kissing his forehead gently, trying not to look anywhere but in his blank eyes.  
  
"I don't know if you can hear me, Josef Kostan, but you're safe now. You're with Mick and Beth, and we're going to do everything we can. And when you're better, damn it, I'm probably going to scream at you for quite a while until I get over being so terrified. So get better, damn it. I know you love it when I yell...." Her voice falters, but she adds, "And don't even _think_ about dying to avoid the yelling. I _will_ find a way to track you down, don't think I won't!"  
  
Mick listens to her, hoping it's getting through and adding a prayer to the God he's not sure he even believes in. "You need to go now. He's not going to be safe once he can move."  
  
"No. You built that safe room in case I ever needed it, and I'll lock myself in there, but I'm not leaving this apartment 'til I know he's okay, Mick. I can't." He nods in acceptance; he never thought she'd actually leave. She gets the portable intercom and puts it on the bed before kissing him, grabbing her latest book off the nightstand, and locking herself in the vampire and fire-proof room he'd built from what was once a closet. She's really glad she's never been claustrophobic as the bolts click into place.  
  
Mick waits until he hears the bolts engage, piles all the pillows at the head of the bed, then sits down and bites his arm, dripping his blood into Josef's mouth. He rubs more blood on Josef's face, his wrists and ankles, and then the rest of his body, talking softly all the while. "And you say _I'm_ trouble. But I've got you now, and you're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you." He keeps talking – about his week, what he cooked for Beth's dinner last night, his latest case, hoping the sound of his voice, his touch, and his scent will help pull Josef's mind back from wherever he's taken refuge while the blood soaks into mouth and skin to start reviving his body. Their bond is eerily silent, and that more than anything else worries him.  
  
The minutes seem like hours as he waits for any movement, but finally Josef's throat moves as he swallows weakly. He makes an almost silent hiss, and Mick hears his unspoken _'More'_ through the bond. Mick offers up a silent and grateful _'Thank you'_ as he chugs two pints of blood and piles the rest on the bed within easy reach. He settles against the pillows, leaning back half-reclined with Josef cradled against his body, supported. He bites his arm again, deeply this time, and presses the wound to Josef's mouth, hoping that he'll be able to feed on his own now that he can swallow. And he does, thank God, but weakly, unable to move even enough to bite.  
  
Josef's skin starts smoothing out, fading, and he starts drinking more deeply, drawing Mick's blood out in powerful, painful draughts, and Mick has to grab another pint of blood to chug, then another and another, almost inhaling them, barely able to drink fast enough to stay ahead of Josef.  
  
Josef gets stronger quickly, growling more loudly, hands grabbing on and holding Mick's arm in a deathgrip as he feeds.   
  
Mick quickly updates Beth through the intercom, then wraps his other arm back around Josef, trying to ignore his own shaking.  
  
And then Josef stops suddenly and pulls back, turns to face Mick, and collapses against him with a groan. Mick wraps him tightly in his arms and finally lets himself really believe that Josef's _alive_.  
  
He looks like himself again, but it's a long moment before he says anything, and then it's just a quiet "Thanks" muttered against Mick's collar bone.  
  
"Welcome. You safe for Beth yet?"   
  
Josef shakes his head, still barely moving. "Way too hungry. Need..." he trails off, but Mick understands and pulls him closer, offering his neck, and that's all it takes.   
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
Josef's aware of Mick talking to Beth, telling her he's coherent but still feeding, and he can hear Beth's whoop of joy through the walls – but all he can really focus on is feeding, pulling life back into his depleted body.   
  
Yet it's different this time. He's still hungry, but he's no longer starving. He slows down after a few minutes and starts to savor feeding – despite the taste of stale blood that Mick's tainted with – feeling his mind grow clearer as the minutes go by.  
  
He'd been constantly on alert in that place, aware they were purposefully draining him, but staked and in shackles lined in silver he'd been unable to resist. Lucinda had taken great joy in painting him in fanciful patterns with acid, calling him a traitor, a thief, filth who took what wasn't his, but had never said anything useful. So he'd watched every movement, memorized every face, never closed his eyes, always looked for an opportunity, watched them steadily as they amused themselves playing "torture the helpless vampire."  
  
But he closes his eyes now, relaxed and safe in Mick's arms, Mick's blood rejuvenating his body, and images from earlier fill his mind. Mick, bursting through the cell door, pulling out the stake, snarling and grabbing a dead guard's hands for protection as he broke apart the metal. Being carried through hallways with the walls splattered in gore, filled with bodies broken and torn apart by rage, pieces kicked aside impatiently as Mick strides through. A woman's head propped up in a chair by the front door – hello, Lucinda, so good to see you dead.   
  
Mick's shaking him gently now, asking if he's back in control and he nods, wondering how long he's been feeding. But he's floating now, so comfortable and safe, and lets himself just drift, swallowing as his mouth fills more and more slowly, but doing nothing to draw the blood out.  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
Beth approaches them very cautiously – she's seen precisely how deadly Josef can be – watching Mick for any sign of warning. But when he looks up at her he smiles and holds out his arm in invitation, so she tucks herself against his free side, hugging both of them together.   
  
She reaches over and runs her hand up and down Josef's back, needing to touch him, prove to herself that he's really alive, that they haven't lost him. The skin that was dark, dried to parchment, and scarred is now smooth and perfect again, and she can't stop touching him, reassuring herself.  
  
She grins suddenly. She will never, _ever_ tell Josef he was purring, sprawled half on top of Mick and feeding from him. Well, no, she probably will, but not until later. She pokes Mick who cocks an eyebrow at her. Screw it. "He's _purring_. It's...it's..Mick, it's _adorable_. Vampires purr?"   
  
Mick laughs, shaking them both. "Looks that way, huh? You do know he'd kill us for calling it purring if he was more awake?"  
  
"If he was more awake, he probably wouldn't be _purring_. I think we're pretty safe."   
  
She keeps rubbing his back, noticing the soft rumble stops as she rubs circles instead of up and down, and goes back to gentle strokes, neck to hips and back again, pleased when the sound starts back up.  
  
"Seriously, purring?"   
  
Mick shrugs. "He checked out a while ago. When a vampire gets hurt that badly, he'll heal faster in a... it's sort of a trance state, I guess. Thing is, you can only do it if you feel absolutely safe, and that means a vampire you trust with your life is right there with you. That's why I haven't stopped touching him. He knows nothing'll get past me." Mick looks at Beth thoughtfully. "You might be one of the only humans alive who's seen one of us like this. Humans aren't protection against an attack. And he really trusts you, too – humans did this to him, but he still feels safe with you here."  
  
Beth didn't think she had any tears left. She'd been completely wrong. She knows that Josef is Mick's family and vice versa, and he's family to her as well – she's even told him so – but she hadn't realized that it really went both ways or how much that would mean to her. She smiles up at Mick through her tears and his arm tightens around her.   
  
"How long will he stay like that?"  
  
Mick shrugs. "Could be a few minutes, could be a few hours."  
  
"You mind if I get some sleep?"  
  
"Of course not! But not on this sheet." He makes a face and then shifts a little, murmuring something to Josef too softly for her to understand, shifting them both before lifting him carefully and standing. Josef doesn't really move, just makes a soft grumbling noise, face still pressed against Mick's neck.   
  
She quickly strips off the sheet protector, grimacing at the stains, and remakes the bed with clean linens before bagging up the empties as well as the sheet. The lot goes out in the hallway to the freezer; they can deal with it later. The sky outside is just beginning to lighten. She locks down the shutters, closes the drapes.  
  
Mick gets settled back on the bed, lying down with Josef held protectively against him. Beth realizes as she strips that her clothes are covered in dried blood as well. She makes a face, but she's far too tired to shower – just washes her hands and face, stumbling back to the bed and collapsing against Mick. His arm is around her, his body cool next to hers, and her family is safe. She sleeps.  
  
She's used to waking alone, but surfaces to find she's still curled up against Mick. He's breathing a little, and she lifts her head to see why, sees Josef's lips move although she can't hear anything. Must be that vampire talking thing.  
  
"Hey."  
  
They both look at her, and she laughs when Mick's smiling "Hey" is inaudible on the first try. He grins and tries again, and she leans over to kiss him.  
  
"Morning." She leans further and kisses Josef gently as well. "Good morning."  
  
He raises an eyebrow at her, looking bemused. She's kissed him – on the cheek – fairly often before, but he seems thrown by her kissing his lips. "It's about 4:30 in the afternoon, actually."  
  
Beth reaches over again, combing her fingers gently through his hair. "Good afternoon, Josef. How are you?"  
  
"Good afternoon, Beth. Better. Hungry. Did I miss something?" Always straight to the point.  
  
Still hungry? She frowns at Mick who shrugs. "I taste like 'stale packaged crap' from going through so much bagged blood last night. You know how he is."  
  
 _MEN._ She's still carding through Josef's hair and tugs a handful sharply in annoyance. "And you didn't wake me up for fresh because?"  
  
She's thrown him again. "Because I never feed from you? Because Mick would kill me if I tried? Because – what the hell is this?" He looks irritated as well as completely baffled.  
  
She shares a look with Mick, then crawls across him to sit astride Josef, frowning down at him. Does he really have no idea how important he is to her? To Mick? She thumps him sharply on the chest.  
  
"You moron! You're part of our _family_. You're hurting and need fresh blood. I happen to have plenty on tap and I trust you. I love you, you fucking idiot, and so does Mick, and we almost LOST you. Damn it, how could you think I'd let you hurt when I can help?" She can't stop her tears, and she doesn't try. Mick's rubbing her back now, but Josef looks blank, looking from her to Mick and back again. She holds out her arm to him, but he's tense and still. Mick shifts closer to her and takes her arm. He kisses her palm reverently before nosing up to the middle of her forearm, kissing over the artery before biting. The pain fades quickly into the warmth and pleasure she feels every time he feeds.   
  
She looks down at Josef, sees his fangs extending, the brown of his eyes changing to silver, but this time she lets Mick be the one to offer her arm, the blood flowing freely. And this time Josef doesn't resist.  
  
It's been a while since the first night she'd offered her blood to Mick. She'd still expected it to hurt, but after a brief sting she'd felt a rush of pleasure.  
  
But now she sees why Josef never lacks willing donors. This rush is different, stronger, more intensely sexual – which is odd when Mick's only bitten her during sex. It's more sensual with Mick, less overwhelming. Mick's arms are around her, supporting her as her head spins with pleasure, her body squirms, and she pants through a sudden hard orgasm. As she comes down she watches Josef, the gentleness of his hands as he strokes her arm, of his mouth as he feeds slowly and carefully. He pulls away after long minutes, gently swiping the bite clean with his tongue. Mick reaches past her to the nightstand and grabs a tissue, folds it and hands it to Josef, who puts pressure on the still oozing bite.  
  
He looks up at her now, eyes shifting silver to brown as he meets her eyes. "Thank you. I....that helped. Thank you."  
  
Beth tries to catch her breath. "Wow." Josef smirks at her and she makes a face at him, then turns to Mick. "That was different than when you've fed from me. Why?"  
  
Mick shrugs. She looks at Josef. "Centuries of practice?" he offers. He doesn't sound quite like himself.  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
He's always found Beth attractive, but he's also considered her off-limits for anything but flirting and friendship. But now faced with the sight of her straddling him while neither of them have a stitch on, face flushed, heart pounding, breath quickened, the smell of her arousal heavy in the air, her body slick against his belly, her blood in his mouth – he looks from her to Mick, uncharacteristically flustered.  
  
It's Mick calming him now through their bond, running his hands up Beth's sides as he whispers in her ear, "He wants you."  
  
She's looking at him, puzzled why he stopped feeding if he's still hungry, when Mick shifts her down Josef's body just far enough for her to feel exactly what sort of "hungry" he is. Her eyes widen, and the look she's giving Josef turns from concerned to predatory. She wiggles back against him, grinning, and he growls, grabbing her hips and pressing her where he wants her, sliding her down until she sheathes him fully.   
  
Beth moans softly, clenching around him, leaning forward to grab his hair and pull him closer so she can kiss him, heedless of his fangs, as she moves slowly and teasingly on him. Mick is still behind her, kissing her neck and shoulders, arms around her so he can stroke her and fondle her breasts as they sway gently with her movement. Through the bond he feels Josef's confusion, and reassures him: "Ours. She's _ours._ "  
  
Josef looks at Beth, hands splayed on his chest now, eyes closed, biting her lip as she hits another climax – Josef inside her, Mick caressing her, and for a moment his vision blurs. He sees her changed, fangs gleaming, can almost feel her claws in his chest. But when he blinks he sees her as she is now, still mortal. A vision? A wish? He controls himself with an effort, doesn't offer her his blood, feels Mick's agreement that it's too soon. Then his fangs descend further as his body starts to shake, and Mick reaches out to him past Beth, quickly offering his arm for Josef to bite into as he climaxes.   
  
When he looks up, they're both smiling at him, and he smiles back, unguarded. Beth is theirs, and they're _his_ \-- and he knows now that he's theirs, too.  
  
He pulls them both down, one on either side of him, sated for the moment, and happier than he can remember being in decades.  
  
He won't be telling either of them any time soon that if this is what happens when he's tortured nearly to death, it might make him just a little _more_ reckless in future....

**Author's Note:**

> Set in January 2010


End file.
